AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I feel a pang of regret. I never meant for it to be hollow. I swallow a guilty lump in my throat and drop my hands to my sides. Water sluices down my body. It runs hot over my cock. It’s slick when Elise grabs it. A gentle caress steals a grunt from me, and then her grip is firm.
“Fuck.”
Elise’s dark eyes meet mine. “You’re not alone.” Her hand strokes my shaft. “You’re not alone.” Another stroke. It’s a fucking chorus of locks popping open and clanging against one another. “You’re with me.”
I’ve been alone for so long. I forced myself to be alone. I want what she’s saying be true. I want to have this family with her. But I’m afraid to hope. Deep down, I know I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve her.
I don’t deserve her hand, stroking me faster and faster.
I slap a palm against the wall to hold myself up. My lungs expand, working hard, like I’ve been running. “I love you.” Why couldn’t I tell her before? “I fucking love you.”
Elise sinks to her knees. The water droplets make her look like magic. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted. A soft place to land. A safe place to stay. A warm heart.
She’s home.
She uses both hands now. One to stroke my shaft. The other to reach for the heavy sac underneath. “I love you, too.”
Elise has clever fingers. They’re the same one she uses to knead bread and make croissants. The same ones she uses to decorate cakes with delicate icing flowers. Now all that talent is for me. She finds every hidden place that makes me grunt. Makes me helpless. Makes me jolt. She reaches further and further back. I can’t breathe for how bold she’s being. How fearless. Withme.
One fingertip brushes across a place that nobody’s touched in years.
An animal sound tears out of me. The orgasm comes next.
My cock pulses in her hand, spilling me onto her chest. Pearlescent droplets trace over her breasts, glistening there until they’re washed away by the water and she’s bare again.
I can’t move. My knees are going to give out. I’ve never lost control like this with another person. I’ve never put myself in someone else’s hands so completely. The closest I came was with Jacob, and that was forever ago. What I have with Elise is far beyond it. I want to return the favor for her. I want to get on myknees. I want to worship her. I want to lick her clit until she can’t say my name anymore.
Except I’m shaking. Unsteady. Something’s happening in my mind. A monumental shift.
If this is hope, I want to keep it. I’m not willing to give it up.
Elise moves to turn off the shower, but I take her hand. “Wait. It’s your turn.”
She cups my cheek. I’m perpetually astonished by how sweet she is. There’s nothing but acceptance on her face, and deep trust. “I know I said we have to do this together, but we’re both exhausted. Let’s sleep. Just this once, you can owe me.”
I don’t like the idea of owing anything to anyone. I’ve fought that my entire life. Hated it.
Yet here I am.
“Yeah.” I nip her bottom lip, and I feel the response all down her body. “I owe you one. Or two. Or ten.”
It’s a promise to keep her up all night. Someothernight. When my legs are functioning and I’m not about to pass out. I help her out of the shower and dry her body. It’s pure pleasure to feel the curves of her ass and squeeze the water from her hair with the towel to help it dry. I don’t deny myself any of it.
We climb into bed completely naked, and I pull her close.
Elise drifts off right away.
I stroke my hand over her brow. Against her temple. Down her cheek. It’s not sexual, even when I brush the backs of my fingers over the sides of her breasts. It’s worship.
I’m in awe of her.
My cock is hard again, because of fucking course it is. Part of me wants to wake her up, though I’m not steady enough to give her the two or ten I owe her. The more important thing is that she needs sleep.
Elise isn’t the only one. I’m bone tired. I expect the room to fade into dreams within seconds, but it doesn’t. I hold her in the dark, listening.
I’m listening for Nate, down the hall. I’m listening for someone at the door.
It feels imperative that I watch over the house. Watch over my new family. I won’t have a shot at keeping them for the rest of my life if I don’t keep them safe.
